(For those who grew up with questions)
(For those who grew up with questions)
**A mind full of curiosity is like a tangled thread—
all it needs is a gentle touch to begin unraveling.
I write stories to open a window in that mind.**
When I was a child,
I asked too many questions.
So many that I sometimes got a gentle knock on the head for it.
When distant mountains looked strangely close,
I couldn’t help asking,
“Is that Bongdong Mountain?”
Bongdong was the name of the town I lived near,
so it felt like a reasonable guess to me.
Some adults laughed.
Some looked annoyed.
Some said, “Don’t ask silly things.”
But I was truly curious.
Why do faraway things look close,
and the things closest to us feel so distant?
Was the chicken first, or the egg?
I asked questions like that too—
the kind that never really end.
Questions that were perfect for getting scolded.
But that wasn’t what I was really asking.
What I wanted to know was this:
Why do we feel safer only when there is one clear answer?
Why does not knowing make us uneasy?
One day, I seriously wondered
whether, after we die,
we might wake up suddenly—
because we can’t breathe anymore.
Looking back,
I was a very odd child.
And yet,
only now do I understand.
Inside those strange questions
was the person I would become.
A child who couldn’t understand the world all at once,
so she tilted her head—
sideways, upward, in unexpected directions.
If you’re reading this,
perhaps you’re carrying questions like that too,
quietly tucked away somewhere.
Not because you need answers,
but because you don’t want to forget
that you are someone
who is allowed to be curious.
Today, this piece is a greeting
to the child I once was,
and to you—
if you are still holding
a few beautifully unreasonable questions.
독자의 마음을 향한 문장
(궁금증으로 자라난 사람에게)
어릴 때 나는
질문이 너무 많아서
가끔은 머리를 한 번씩 쥐어박히는 아이였다.
멀리 있는 산이
이상하게 가까워 보이면
괜히 물어봤다.
“저 산, 봉동산이에요?”
내가 살던 동네에서
가장 가까운 읍 이름이 봉동읍이었으니까.
어른들은 웃었고
어떤 어른은 귀찮아했고
어떤 어른은 “쓸데없는 소리 말라”고 했다.
하지만 나는 진짜 궁금했다.
왜 멀리는 가까워 보이고
가까운 건 늘 멀게 느껴질까.
닭이 먼저냐, 알이 먼저냐
끝도 없는 질문을 하다 보면
혼나기 딱 좋았지만
사실 내가 궁금했던 건
그게 아니었다.
왜 우리는 꼭 하나를 정해야 안심할까.
왜 모르는 채로 두면 불안해질까.
어느 날은
죽으면 숨을 못 쉬니까
답답해서 벌떡 일어나지 않을까
혼자 진지하게 걱정했다.
지금 생각하면
참 엉뚱한 아이였다.
그런데
이제야 알겠다.
그 엉뚱한 질문들 속에
지금의 내가 있었다는 걸.
세상을 한 번에 이해하지 못해서
자꾸 옆으로, 위로, 엉뚱한 방향으로
고개를 기울이던 아이.
혹시
이 글을 읽는 당신도
비슷한 질문을
어딘가에 숨겨두고 살고 있지 않나요?
답을 얻기 위해서가 아니라
궁금해할 자격이 있는 사람이라는 걸
스스로 잊지 않기 위해서.
오늘 이 글은
그때의 나에게,
그리고 아직도
엉뚱한 질문을 품고 있는
당신에게 건네는 인사입니다.
glorialeeart.blog 
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